Genus: Solenopsis
Species: invicta
Common Name: Red imported fire ant
Colony Stage: Fresh Colonies
Caught Date: April ?? (First Queen of the Year), April 20 (Chill Lady), April 25 (Trips)
Eggs:
Larva:
Pupa:
Nanitics:
Diet: All the things, yummy yummy.
Special Needs:
Do they Sting or bite?: Yes
Escape Artists?: Yes
Queen or colony count: 3 colonies, 5 queens
06-30-2020:
So I kind of have been passing updating on these girls since I now have so many other species, who of which I know less about so more learning opportunities. And because of my many other species I did cull my other invicta queens (I'm so sorry girls!) knowing I could always collect more next year as they're so easy to get, I think 3 Solenopsis invicta colonies are more than enough right now and I'm not likely to keep all 3 when the numbers get bigger. Anyone in the area interested in an invicta colony later? If I had not found so many other species I probably would have kept more invicta girls.These invicta are the species I grew up knowing about most as a kid and the species I failed trying to keep because I didn't know about the world of ant keeping. I use to mess with them all the time and had plenty of bites to show for it!
So here are my three colonies.
First Queen of the Year:
This queen was the first queen I caught and is the reason I got back into ants. So I owe her one! Caught at my work.
These girls love to build. They bring in play sand from their outworld and build little chambers against the water cotton. Their queen prefers hiding behind their little sand walls. They have a reasonable amount of workers and brood right now. They also dig under any insects I put in the outworld so there is a kind of sink hole affect. They don't bury it otherwise so I'm not sure why they do this?
Chill Lady:
The queen I named Chill Lady because nothing seemed to bother her. She'd just clean her antennae and do her own thing. She was caught at home. She ended up brood boosted by the other queens I culled. They're doing well. They also do the sink hole thing.
Trips:
This is my 3 queen colony and they were part of the large collection of queens I found digging together near home. For the longest time they got along very well and I hadn't had any trouble with them trying to kill or kick out any of the queens. Though I kept them fed in protein to just be safe. But it seems one queen was pushed further to the entrance of the tube for a while and it seems she'll rejoin the others only after I fed them fresh bug meats. I noticed she is also missing some legs. Is she the queen they would eat in case of a shortage in protein? I very much think she would be on the menu in that case. I'll have to watch them closely and make sure to feed them.
Others:
Things I've noticed from the others no longer with me.
I had put 4 queens together but I think one might not have been from the same mother nest as she was aggressive. The other 3 joined together to quickly kill her and after that lived peacefully together.
A 2 queen nest I missed feeding fresh bugs and 1 queen was killed and eaten. After that I've been trying to be sure to feed multi-queen nests without missing a step.
The personalities of the queens varied greatly and it was hard choosing who to keep. I didn't expect such a wide rang of personalities. I'm curious if it carries over into the workers.
